Tuesday, May 22, 2012

What it feels like for a girl

I've had this blog stuck in my head for the past few days, but it never had an exact point to it, more of some kind of rant or brain to keyboard dribble.
So it feels like most of my life has been spent preparing for motherhood in some way, shape or form.
I am the eldest of four girls, all of whom I was expected to help with from a very young age, and with a big age gap between myself and my two youngest sisters, I became "assistant mum"
Every morning I'd get my little sisters ready for school. Clothes, hair, shoes, school bags, etc. I'd help my mum make dinner, do the washing, ironing, and cleaning. I was the perfectly trained, albeit extremely sexist and misogynistic, mini housewife in training.
As I grew into an adult I came to have more of a feminist view on this topic and for a long, long time I never wanted to be married or have children. I didn't want the role of housebound housewife.
But with all of these "duties" ingrained into me by my family and society, I gradually changed my mind for it to become something more acceptable to me. Being a wife didn't mean compromising who I was. I feel that my husband and I are equals in this relationship. I know that we will be able to teach our daughter about equality without making everything gender specific. I know that I won't tie her to any role because she is female. I will encourage her to try EVERYTHING she possibly can, and if anyone tells her otherwise she will have enough self confidence (and not in a snotty kind of way) to be able to prove them wrong!
I want to teach her to be a strong, confident person who loves herself and her family and that her gender does not dictate her life